Another, much less expensive, indelible marker option is one called simply 'Garden Marker' made by Gro-Mark garden products. They're available in most good nurseries or garden stores & usually cost about $2.50 (retail) or thereabouts. When I unexpectedly took over management of a grow nursery, all of their labels had been marked with Sharpie pens. Consequently, it took a full season to identify various plants, or their cultivars! I found these at one of our w/s suppliers & they are absolutely impervious to wear from the elements, even in a commercial setting! I've since found them in numerous garden stores & wouldn't be without them. I'd personally save my money on something like this in order to buy more seed or plants! Hope this info is helpful.

Not sure what you are using the pens for - but you can take the Pentel R.S.V.P pens apart and insert your own personalized printed information inside of them. It is something I have seen a lot of scrapbookers do. I think the template size is 1"x3" or maybe just a little bit longer than 3". I have seen it with just pretty scrapbook paper inserted in the pen - but I have also seen them with names and pictures printed on the paper, then inserted. Looks really cool! But if you are looking for something more professional - maybe not the thing. The Pentel RSVP pens are available at WalMart - several in a bag for not much $$

Holly, yes, I could look elsewhere for the same pen (and did) but at this point, if I am going to stick with the same pen, I'll stick with the original purchase (I got 20% off the price). They've estimated that it will ship from CO 6/10.. (after my note of disappointment), they are going to see if they can have the manufacturer ship to me directly. That will save a little time and I appreciate the effort. They did offer a few other options that they do have in stock but the only one I am considering is the same pen with a medium nib. I did look at other pens, including levengers, the cross apogee and the waterman hemisphere. There are many good pens for less than $200 (with the 20% off, I actually got the Parola under 200) but the reviews weren't as consistently good.. not bad but not as consistent. I am really torn because so much of the rating is based on personal preference. The decider for me last week and even now to some degree was the packaging--which is really something special but doesn't have a thing to do with the pen itself. Another limiter is that there are a lot of finishes/colors that I nix outright as either too grown up or too fancy. This kid is classic and serious but also rugged. He is going into archeology, he plays rugby and hikes, etc. He's a mix of Old Navy, llbean, and Burberry! I am sticking with Navy or black with chrome/stainless details. Lascatx, I hear you on the value of the pen for a young man. I bounced this around quite a bit also. I did the same with my own niece and jewelry, etc. He does take care of his valuables but at college, it's as much about the other kids as this kid. I expect that he will cherish the pen-- much like he does other valuables and it may or may not go to school with him. I am ok with that. I see this gift as a mark of transition from a boy to a scholar of the world... not necessarily an instrument for college. I really like the idea of the notepads or custom stationary but at this point, they'd have additional delays to be personalized. If I still feel the need to include something additional, I think I'll go with moleskin which I can pick up at B&N.

I got this one, pluto. My husband wanted the hand-held one so he can walk around the house labeling cats and furniture, or something. But there is no way I'm manually typing Latin binomials and habitat origins in Afrikaans on a hand-held QWERTY keyboard. So I got the kind that plugs in to my desktop that will let me cut and paste. The software comes with the thingajig, it plugs in as an external drive. Just remember to unplug it after use because if you boot your system with it plugged in, it tries to chat with the GPU, your screen goes black and you have to restart. Haven't figured that one out yet.